Monthly Archives: October 2017

London – The man who has been credited with transforming Burberry into the UK’s leading luxury fashion house is set to leave his role. President and Chief Creative Officer at Burberry, Christopher Bailey, is set to leave the company by the end of 2018, marking the end of his 17-year tenure.

The heritage fashion house announced Bailey’s impending departure on Tuesday morning, as Burberry is set to begin the next decade of its journey under the supervision of its new leader, Chief Executive Officer Marco Gobbetti. Bailey, who is set to pursue new, unnamed creative projects, will remain on board as President and Chief Creative Officer until March 31, 2018, after which he will step down from the company board. He will, however, remain with the company in a transitional advisory role, offering his “full support” to CEO Gobbetti and the rest of the team until he finally exits the fashion house.

“The decision to leave was not an easy one”

Christopher Bailey, President and Chief Creative Officer at Burberry

“It has been the great privilege of my working life to be at Burberry, working alongside and learning from such an extraordinary group of people over the last 17 years,” said Bailey in a statement. “Burberry encapsulates so much of what is great about Britain. As an organization, it is creative, innovative and outward looking. It celebrates diversity and challenges received wisdoms. It is over 160 years old, but it has a young spirit. It is part of the establishment, but it is always changing, and always learning. It has been a truly inspiring place to work and the decision to leave was not an easy one.”

“I do truly believe, however, that Burberry’s best days are still ahead of her and that the company will go from strength to strength with the strategy we have developed and the exceptional talent we have in place led by Marco. I would like to thank all my colleagues as well as Sir John Peace and the Board for all their support and faith in me over the years. I am excited to pursue new creative projects but remain fully committed to the future success of this magnificent brand and to ensuring a smooth transition.”

Christopher Bailey to exit joint role as President and Chief Creative Officer at Burberry

Since joining the team at Burberry back in 2001 as design director, Bailey has become one of the main driving forces behind the luxury fashion house’s transformation. Within the span of 17 years, Burberry has grown from a small-licensed outerwear business into one of the industry’s leading global luxury brands, best known for its trench coats and innovative marketing campaigns. Together with Angela Ahrendts, former CEO at Burberry, Bailey established the Burberry Foundation, a dedicated initiative to help young people achieve their goals. Later in October 2013, he was named as Ahrendts successor, ahead of her departure to Apple in May 2014. He remained in his current role as Chief Creative Officer and became the company’s first CEO and creative head.

In his joint role, Bailey is said to have continued to push the boundaries of creation and innovation at Burberry, leading the way for the brand’s ongoing elevation and turning the luxury fashion house into the industry’s digital leader and overseeing the reinvention of the company’s design and internal structure. He was the mastermind behind Burberry’s key flagship store on Regent Street and built a highly talented and experience creative team to continue the brand’s story. However, in July 2016, the company announced that Marco Gobbetti, CEO of Céline, would be the next CEO of Burberry, taking over the reins from Bailey in 2017, who transitioned into the role of President while remaining in his role as Chief Creative Officer.

p> Bailey worked together with the Board to create a new leadership structure before he was succeeded by Gobbetti this July. Since this summer, Gobbetti and Bailey are said to have worked together to develop a strategy for the next chapter of Burberry’s growth, sharing a strong ambition to drive the success of the Burberry brand while strengthening the leadership team. Gobbetti understands and supports Bailey’s decision to leave his joint role at Burberry, and will now begin the process of finding a successor for his role. “Burberry has undergone an incredible transformation since 2001 and Christopher has been instrumental to the Company’s success in that period,” said Gobbetti.

“We have a clear vision for the next chapter to accelerate the growth and success of the Burberry brand”

Marco Gobbetti, Chief Executive Officer, Burberry

“While I am sad not to have the opportunity to partner with him for longer, the legacy he leaves and the exceptional talent we have at Burberry gives me enormous confidence in our future. We have a clear vision for the next chapter to accelerate the growth and success of the Burberry brand and I am excited about the opportunity ahead for our teams, our partners, and our shareholders.” Sir John Peace, Chairman at Burberry thanked Bailey for his part in transforming Burberry, adding that he leaves the company in “the very best of hands. with a strong team and culture in place, led by Marco as CEO.”

“I have total confidence that Marco’s vision and leadership, with the excellent management team in place, will keep Burberry on the forefront creatively, digitally and financially, creating further value for shareholders in the next exciting stage of our evolution,” added Peace. Full details concerning all payments made to Bailey concerning his role as director will be revealed in the Directors’ Remuneration Report in the company’s annual report for the year ended March 31, 2018, added Burberry. In the past company shareholders have voted against the luxury fashion houses remuneration report concerning pay deals for Bailey. However, Bailey has decided to surrender various awards held by him under the company’s share plan as he is set to step down from the board and exit the company by the end of 2018.

Following the announcement concerning Bailey’s exit, company shares were down 1.46 percent at 10:00 am, making the company’s stock the worst performer on a rising FTSE 100 index. Bailey’s exit comes after a period of rapid expansion, during which the company has struggled with stagnate saled over the recent years. Bailey is set to leave big shoes to fill however, notes Charlotte Pearce, Retail Analyst at Globaldata. “Since becoming Creative Director in 2004, Bailey has contributed to total revenue growth of 2 billion pounds and has helped to regenerate the brand, turning it back into the aspirational, iconic label that it once was,” commented Pearce.

“With just over a year until Bailey leaves, there is plenty of time for Marco Gobbetti, who took over as CEO in July, to find the right candidate to fill Bailey’s shoes. It is crucial that Burberry finds someone with respect for the brand’s British heritage but is able to further evolve the label creatively and bring it into a new era.”

Kappahl has announced the appointment of Peter Andersson as the company’s new CFO, effective April 2018. The company said in a statement that Andersson brings many years as CFO of AB Lindex, where he currently is director of expansion.

“I am very pleased with the recruitment of Peter. His extensive expertise and experience from retail will be a great asset to Kappahl”, said Danny Feltmann, Kappahl’s President and CEO in a media release.

From April 2018, Andersson will lead and develop the financial work of the Kappahl Group. The company added that Andersson has many years of international experience from the retail business from strategic and operational perspective as well as qualified work in financial and risk management. He has previously worked for ICA Handlarna AB.

Kappahl was founded in Gothenburg in 1953 and is a leading fashion chain in the Nordic region with 370 Kappahl and Newbie stores, including an online platform, in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Poland and Great Britain. The company’s sales for 2016/2017 totalled 4.9 billion Swedish krona (0.5 billion dollars).

He will succeed current chief executive Sean Clarke who has held the position since July 2016. In a statement, the company said Clarke will be “taking some time out” but will “remain engaged” with Walmart.

Burnley returned to Asda as chief operating officer and deputy chief executive in October 2016 and at the time was identified as a future chief executive.

Dave Cheesewright, chief executive of Walmart International, said: “Roger was purposefully brought back to Asda to partner with Sean ahead of the transition to Roger taking up the position of CEO. He and Sean have worked as a great team and I’m really confident in Roger’s ability to continue building upon our returning momentum.”

Clarke will remain Asda’s chief executive until 31 December and will work closely with Burnley to ensure a smooth transition.

Cheesewright added: “After more than 21 years with the company, Sean has worked across five international markets including serving as president and CEO of Walmart China and obviously here in the UK too. He’s continually shown the ability to lead critical transformation and the last 15 months are no exception.”

Asda chief executive Sean Clarke will stand down in January, barely 18 months after taking on the role.

The supermarket chain, a subsidiary of US giant Walmart, has struggled over the past few years, losing market share to discount rivals Aldi and Lidl.

But it insisted Mr Clarke was departing because he wanted to take some time out, and that his deputy Roger Burnley was always being lined up as a successor.

Dave Cheesewright, chief executive of Walmart International, said: “Roger was purposefully brought back to Asda to partner with Sean ahead of the transition to Roger taking up the position of CEO.

Mr Clarke joined Asda from Walmart’s Chinese division last year

“He and Sean have worked as a great team and I’m really confident in Roger’s ability to continue building on our return to momentum.”

Mr Clarke has spent 21 years in various international roles at Walmart and was chief executive of its Chinese division before taking the top job at Asda last July. He replaced Andy Clarke, who had struggled to maintain the retailer’s revenues amid intense competition and falling food prices.

He is expected to return to another role at Walmart after taking some time out, an Asda spokesman said.

Clive Black, an analyst at Shore Capital, told The Daily Telegraph it was a “surprise” Mr Clarke was leaving given his relatively short tenure. However, he added: “Roger Burnley is a very experienced UK grocer, something that Sean has lacked.”

Mr Burnley was previously director of supply at Asda but left to become Matalan’s supply chain director in 2002. He later held the same role at Sainsbury’s before returning to Asda as deputy chief executive and chief operations officer in October 2016.

Mr Black said: “To take Asda forward they do need an experienced British supermarket general. Roger Burnley is up against [Tesco chief executive] Dave Lewis, [Morrison’s] David Potts and [Sainsbury’s] Mike Coupe in the larger store segment and they’ve been around a long time.”

Reduced funding, higher business rates and the apprenticeship levy created ‘challenging market conditions’

Lloyds Pharmacy has announced it will close nearly 200 stores across England because of changes in government policy, with its parent company also blaming funding cuts and the apprenticeship levy.

In an internal letter to staff Cormac Tobin, the managing director of Lloyds Pharmacy’s owner, Celesio UK, said around 190 pharmacies would cease to trade through a combination of closures and disinvestments.

The leaked internal memo to staff, which was verified by a spokesman for Celesio UK, said the business had been hit by pharmacy funding cuts, as well as higher business rates and the apprenticeship levy, which had made “market conditions challenging”.

“Community pharmacy needs to adapt to the changing requirements of patients and the NHS, indeed it should be part of the solution to an overstretched health service,” Tobin said in the memo.

“To achieve this, we need a new operational framework that creates a thriving pharmacy network that continues to offer essential integrated healthcare and is rooted in local communities.”

The number of staff who could be affected by the closures was not confirmed by a spokeswoman for Celesio UK, who said current employees may be moved to other locations. But some pharmacists have taken to social media to warn of hundreds of job losses.

Aisha Adnan, a locum pharmacist, posted: “A branch [on] average has five staff and that equates to roughly 1,000 staff being laid off, plus so many pharmacists and locum pharmacists [will] lose their jobs and patients [will] lose their trusted services. This is not the picture of health.”

Thorrun Govind, a pharmacist in north-west England, said: “This is going to impact the most vulnerable patients and, with the GP crisis and pressures on the NHS, the funding cuts were most unwelcome.

“Patients need an accessible healthcare professional to provide advice, medicines and so much more to reduce pressure on other NHS resources. The closure of these pharmacies is disappointing when pharmacists should be supported to provide much more for the NHS.

“I would like to see independent pharmacists prescribers enabled to allow pharmacies on the high street to become triage centres not a reduction in pharmacies.”

Tobin said the company would be taking steps to support staff and minimise disruption for patients.

Julie Cooper, the shadow minister for community care, described the decision as “a devastating blow for Lloyds Pharmacy staff and their patients right across the country. The government is taking hundreds of millions of pounds of support away from pharmacies and now we see that it is patients who will pay the price.”

Cooper urged ministers to outline plans to support “the hundreds of Lloyds Pharmacy jobs that are now at risk” and explain what support will be put in place for patients reliant on their service. “The Tories are prioritising saving money over care. They cannot just expect elderly patients to get their prescriptions via an online service, without any support with their medication,” she said.

A spokeswoman for No 10 said there were measures in place to ensure people could access a pharmacy. She said: “There are almost 12,000 private pharmacies in England and these closures make up just 1.6% of the number. We don’t have full information on the announcement as yet, but we do make sure that patients can access pharmacists where they need to.”

M&S clothing boss leaves weeks after starting new role while John Lewis director quits

A senior boss is leaving M&S’s clothing division

Marks & Spencer’s clothing recovery has been dealt a fresh blow after one of its senior directors quit while John Lewis’s boardroom is facing a reshuffle with the departure of a senior director.

Industry experts said that the departures were fresh signs of the challenges faced by retailers who are struggling to adapt to changing shopping habits in a tough environment.

Tom Athron, who most recently led John Lewis’s new venture business, is leaving, having lost out to Paula Nickolds earlier this year in the race to replace Andy Street.

Mr Athron has been with the partnership since 2005 as head of financial strategy before becoming buying director of Waitrose and finance director of Waitrose. After being overlooked for the John Lewis role the former investment director has been pushing John Lewis’s expansion into home services, such as approved tradesman who visit customers’ homes.

Paula Nickolds is now boss of John Lewis

Friends of Mr Athron said that he had resigned and was now looking for opportunities in digital retail after being pipped to the post by Ms Nickolds.

Meanwhile Jo Jenkins, who was made Marks & Spencer’s director of clothing earlier this month, is leaving to become chief executive of casual fashion chain White Stuff.

Her departure comes less than a month after the arrival of her boss Jill McDonald, who joined Marks & Spencer from Halfords to run its non-food business.

There is speculation that Ms Jenkins had wanted to be in charge of the division, but the retailer felt this would be too much of a leap and M&S wanted to recruit someone from outside the business with a strong operational background, rather than in just buying.

Ms Jenkins is leaving M&S to become CEO of White Stuff

Ms McDonald has no fashion retail experience but her stint running the UK arm of fast food chain McDonald’s is said to have given her a sharp awareness of how to use customer data.

With Ms Jenkins gone, Ms McDonald will be able to have a greater say in shaping her team rather than inheriting one. An M&S insider played down the chances of any disruption to the crucial Christmas trading period and said that festive lines had already been decided by July.

Stemming the steady decline in clothing sales remains a priority for M&S, with chief executive Steve Rowe only recently relinquishing control of the division. Mr Rowe has previously said the retailer gave customers “too many reasons not to shop with us” and has tried to wean the company off a destructive discounting cycle.

He has also set up a panel of retail shareholders who feed into the company on their views in an effort to address customer complaints about ill-fitting clothes, poor quality and excessively young ranges.

The efforts seem to be paying off so far, with M&S reporting a 1.2pc drop in like-for-like sales in the 13 weeks to July 1, compared to the 5.9pc plunge a year earlier.

Ms Jenkins, who has a six-month notice period, started at M&S as a range selector in 1987 before spending 15 years at rival Next. She returned in 2013 as director of lingerie and beauty, before taking responsibility for womenswear two years later.

“We’re delighted for Jo – she’s been a real talent here at M&S, which is reflected in the progress she has made both professionally and for the business,” the retailer said.

“Becoming chief executive at a company like White Stuff is a natural next step for her. We wish her all the very best with her new role.”

Privately owned White Stuff has 131 shops and 53 concessions, and turned over £153.6m last year. Ms Jenkins will replace Jeremy Seigal, formerly CEO of Superdrug-owner AS Watson UK, who announced his intention to stand down in July.

M&S stock dipped 0.6pc in morning trade but recouped its losses and was trading flat at 344.50p by early

The small format shop in Melbourne is the first site operated with Debenhams’ franchise partner Pepkor, which is part of the Steinhoff Group.

Spanning 3,600 square metres across two floors, the store is the first of its kind for Debenhams and marks a shift away from the traditional department store format in Australia.

The store features a mix of clothing including fashion from the retailer’s collaborations with UK designers such as Jasper Conran, Julien Macdonald, Preen, Savannah Miller, Matthew Williamson and Jenny Packham. In-store services include a style suite, beauty rooms and a café.

David Smith, Debenhams’ managing director of international, said: “International expansion in key markets is a strategic priority for the business. More than 20 million shoppers visit our 175 UK and ROI stores each year and this includes a huge number of Australian consumers.

“Shoppers in Australia spend more than $5.1 billion on fashion and $8 billion on beauty products a year – add that to the fact that we know that our offering resonates and the next logical step for the business was to open a store in Australia.”

The new store in St Collins Lane has joined a portfolio of 243 Debenhams stores across 28 countries worldwide.

Dubai Land Department (DLD) on Monday announced that the total value of real estate transactions for the first nine months of 2017 reached AED204 billion ($55.5 billion), achieved through 52,170 deals.

It said there were a total of 37,633 transactions for land, residential units and buildings, generating a value of over AED88 billion.

There were also 11,699 mortgage transactions worth AED102 billion and 2,838 other transactions worth AED14 billion.

Sultan Butti bin Mejren, director general of Dubai Land Department, said: “The data clearly shows an increasing demand across all property categories, including land plots for various forms of real estate development, as well as buildings and residential units, which means that we are attracting a wide variety of investors.”

He did not give a year-on-year comparison.

Bin Mejren added: “We expect the market to remain on this upward trajectory of sustained growth, and to see demand continuing to diversify across various real estate categories. The momentum of the market is being driven and sustained by several factors but particularly the upcoming launch of Expo 2020 Dubai.”

The latest DLD report shows that the land category attracted AED143.40 billion worth of investment, achieved from 11,169 transactions across sales, mortgages and other transaction categories. Building sales generated 5,014 transactions with a total value of AED12.72 billion, while 36,000 transactions for residential units of all types crossed the AED48.77 billion mark.

The report also revealed the top ten real estate sales areas in Dubai, with Burj Khalifa taking first place in terms of value with 1,650 transactions worth AED6.239 billion.

Business Bay followed in second place with 2,754 transactions worth AED5.570 billion, while Dubai Marina was ranked third place with 2,596 transactions totalling AED5.357 billion in value.

In terms of mortgages, Palm Jumeirah topped the list with 578 transactions exceeding AED11.38 billion in value, followed by Business Bay and Dubai Marina.

He will join the audit and remuneration committees and will become chairman of the audit committee in January 2018 when Mark Rolfe steps down from the Debenhams board.

With 30 years retail experience, Adams is a former finance director and deputy chief executive of House of Fraser and has also been chairman of Jessops and Moss Bros and a non-executive director at HMV.

He is currently chairman of Conviviality and a non-executive director at Halfords.

Sir Ian Cheshire, chairman of Debenhams, said: “We are delighted to welcome David Adams to Debenhams. He has had a long and distinguished career in the retail and consumer goods industries. His knowledge of the consumer and leisure sectors as well as his financial credentials will be a great addition to the board.”

Hermès has opened ‘Through The Walls’, an immersive exhibition of the French luxury label’s home universe created especially for Singapore.

Showing at Hermès’ Liat Towers flagship store on Orchard Road, the world-first Hermès home exhibition will run from 7 to 29 October 2017.

In a bid to showcase its new collections for the home, under the artistic direction of Charlotte Macaux Perelman and Alexis Fabry, Hermès has tapped Parisian architecture firm RDAI to conceptualize the sleek space in Singapore.

The new outfit reflects the new line’s “functionality and beauty, rigour and fantasy,” an extension that hopes to resonate with Asian clients.

As such, the Hermès Singapore flagship has undertaken a striking reinvention, allowing customers to become fixated on furniture, and actually touch and feel the homewares.

“Through the Walls is an installation that sees spaces metamorphosed: architecture within architecture, a home within a home; the store becomes a place to live,” explained the Paris house, in a press release.

As well as retailing the interiors pieces – which include exquisitely crafted tableware, handcrafted wooden furniture pieces, and wrought leather accessories, and bespoke items such as a scarf cabinet, wallpaper and lighting – Through The Walls will also offer interactive workshops organised and available to the public.

Marking the new collection and pop-up, Hermès has also released a short film on its website. Entitled “Poetics Mechanics,” it features the brand’s objects in a personified manner, highlighting the form, material and function of each piece.

This new homeware focus comes on the back of the Hermes’ store revamp in 2016. Reopened in May 2017, clients are now privy to a much bigger space, with a devotion to furniture and home accessories.

The sudden focus on home lines has been sweeping luxury retail in recent weeks.

This month, Gucci announced and launched its first-ever homewares collection, while New York jewellery Tiffany & Co. will unveil its first home collections under its new artistic director, this November.

Daa, the operator of Dublin airport, has confirmed the main retail area in the departures lounge of terminal two at the airport is set to be revamped.

Tender documents seen by DFNIonline show daa is looking for a panel of six construction companies to work on the refit, which will include the fit out of a 1,350sq m duty-free store, over the next three years. The panel of construction companies will bid for the work in the airport’s retail areas as it arises in the coming years.

The work will primarily take in Aer Rianta International (ARI)’s The Loop outlet in the terminal. A spokesman for the airport operator confirmed the work was initially planned for ARI’s directly operated stores, but that other third-party concessionaires in the terminal can decide to use a firm from the panel if they wish to refurbish their stores.

A two-phase project

Phase one of the initial project will see a new 410sq m liquor store added to the terminal for ARI and five new concession retail units developed. The concession units will be a 60sq m sunglasses store, a 60sq m luggage store, an 80sq m watches/jewellery store and two fashion stores (60sq m and 80sq m).

The main part of the second phase of the works will see the contractors fit out a new 1,350sq m duty-free store for ARI. Two direct retail fashion units (60sq m and 80sq m) will also be fitted out and the existing Irish Memories unit will have a soft refurbishment.

The refurbishment works will be the €600m ($706m) terminal’s first major upgrade since its opening in 2010.

Luxury men’s fashion and accessories brand Alfred Dunhill has opened a new store in Beijing.

Nestled on Jianguo Road in the Chaoyang District, the latest China branch is located on Level 2 of Beijing’s SKP Shopping Centre. It features Dunhill’s famous retail Home design concept: elegant, sophisticated and masculine, with design accents that mimic Dunhill’s flagship store in London.

Taking the store count in Beijing to four (including two outlet stores), the new flagship offers the complete range of Dunhill products for men, including ready-to-wear, bespoke suiting, leather goods, and accessories, in which it started out producing first as a saddler back in England in 1893.

Nowadays, Dunhill is a division of Richemont, the Swiss-based, South African-owned group that is the third largest luxury conglomerate in the world. Dunhill, which owns a global chain of some 70 boutiques, is today located across every continent in most major cities.

In bid to bolster its global sales reach, Dunhill in early 2017 recruited Mark Weston as its new creative director, poaching him from Burberry.

After the showing of his Spring 2018 collection in London in June, Weston spoke to reporters about the “international” direction that he wished to take the quintessentially British brand.

“What I want for Dunhill is to be relevant. To make great clothing, for our times. To be British, but with an international outlook,” Weston said, after his June menswear show in London.

The new Dunhill store opening follows a string of store closures in China by the British luxury brand last year. According to the latest report by the investment research and management company Bernstein, Dunhill — along with fellow Briton Burberry — reported the most store closures in China between July 2016 and July 2017.

For the twelve month period China witnessed 62 net closures of luxury brand stores, the largest number observed by the research firm compared to other significant markets.

“The cooperation between Viplux and Marc Jacobs is a testament to Viplux’s expertise in understanding how to “become one” with the spirit of the specific brand, and to match that with market growth,” said vip.com co-founder, Arthur Hong.

Vip.com launched in 2008 its first foray into the luxury brands e-commerce field with Viplux. Marc Jacobs is among several fashion labels to open flagship stores on Viplux, including Armani, Versace, Salvatore Ferragamo, Diesel, Roberto Cavalli, Sergio Rossi and Trussardi.

Womenswear brand Galvan is set to open its debut retail concept, which will comprise of a showroom, bridal atelier, office, and archive space for the independent label.

Located at Clarendon Cross, Notting Hill, the studio will allow customer to purchase current collection, pre-order from next collection, as well as place orders from Galvan’s archive of previous collections, ahead of the service being launched online next year.

The studio will also be a bridal atelier for its upcoming bridal collection, which will offer “effortless, timeless and clean” options for all kinds of weddings from civil ceremony to late night party to daytime brunch, the brand states on its website, as well as looks for bridesmaids.

“Our philosophy is to put the customer at the core of everything we do, and to make the shopping experience as easy as possible,” said Paul O’Regan, chief executive officer at Galvan. “Galvan Studios provide the antidote to anonymous shopping. Intimate and transparent, these are spaces which give customers insight into the brand and its vision. We are excited to offer a suite of services that truly address the shopping desires and habits of our London customers.”

In addition, the studio can assist with complimentary fittings for online purchases, as well as offer free home delivery for any purchases made in the studio. Additional services launching includes complimentary fittings at home for up to 8 garments, with purchases only being charge after fitting.

London-label Galvan opens ‘studio’ retail concept

The womenswear label known its eveningwear as worn by A-list stars including Emma Watson and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, has also confirmed that has plans to open further studios in New York and Los Angeles.

London-based Galvan launched in 2014 by four women from the worlds of fashion and contemporary art, Anna-Christin Haas, Sola Harrison, Carolyn Hodler, and Katherine Holmgren.

The U.K. retail industry’s Brexit-linked turmoil deepened as J Sainsbury Plc said it would cut as many as 2,000 jobs, Zalando SE said the market is losing attractiveness and rival online fashion site Asos Plc discussed contingency plans.

Sainsbury’s move follows Tesco Plc, which announced 1,200 head-office job cuts in June. Asos, which sells clothing and accessories online, said Tuesday it may handle more of its distribution activities out of Germany if the U.K. falls out of the European customs union. That could put a damper on growth prospects for its 4,000-employee warehouse in Barnsley, England (a town where 68 percent of voters favored Brexit), although the company is continuing to invest in the site for now.

Brexit is heaping more upheaval on an already embattled industry. The country’s grocers have been grappling with discount rivals and higher staffing costs, while fashion retailers struggle against consumers’ preference to spend their disposable income on leisure activities rather than clothing.

The pound’s decline since the Brexit vote has pushed up sourcing costs: U.K. inflation climbed to its highest rate in more than five years in September, led by food and transport. And the risk of the U.K. falling out of the customs union leaves retailers wondering how they will be able to stock their shelves amid backlogs at ports.

Zalando, a German online clothing retailer that’s Europe’s biggest response so far to Amazon.com Inc., said Wednesday that Britain’s decision to leave the European Union is weighing on the market’s prospects.

“We would like to ramp up investments in our U.K. business, but Brexit is posing a problem,” Zalando Co-Chief Executive Officer Rubin Ritter said in a phone interview. “If the new regime limits the flow of goods, it would be a challenge.”

Sainsbury said 1,400 payroll and administrative jobs in its supermarket business may be made obsolete by the introduction of a new information-technology system. It will also ax as many as 600 further human-resources roles due to a restructuring that will consolidate activities among Sainsbury’s supermarkets, home-goods and electronics seller Argos and Sainsbury’s Bank.

Asos on Tuesday reported sales growth in the U.K. decelerated to 16 percent, making it the company’s worst-performing region. That pales in comparison with the 47 percent spurt in its international business. Asos now gets almost two-thirds of its 1.88 billion pounds ($2.49 billion) in annual retail sales outside its home country.

Sainsbury’s latest round of cuts is the largest single amount the grocer has made under Chief Executive Officer Mike Coupe. The London-based retailer is in the final year of its three-year plan to slash costs by 500 million pounds and has said a new three-year plan to cut 500 million pounds of costs will begin next year.

Lifestyle retailer Fat Face will extend its closing times during the festive break and plans to shut 40 stores on Boxing Day, Drapers has learned.

The Boxing Day closures, which take place on the same day its winter Sale period starts, are four times greater than last year’s pilot, when 10 shops shut on the day. The exact store locations are expected to be confirmed next week.

Fat Face boss Anthony Thompson told Drapers it is also closing stores at 2pm on Christmas Eve to prepare for its Sale period, marking the first time the retailer will shut its doors earlier than its high street rivals.

Meanwhile, 210 of Fat Face’s 222 UK stores will close on New Year’s Day. Thompson said that although it has closed some stores on 1 January in previous years, it has “not been done on such scale” before.

The retailer outlined its plans to staff in an internal conference last week.

Thompson said: “We are preparing to go into the season at full price, as we believe customers want price integrity at Christmas.

“Family and price integrity are very important issues to us. We’re taking the opportunity to give time back to both our customers and our teams to spend with their families, as well as reassuring customers they can buy from us with confidence, and get real value with their purchases.”

The retailer has also vowed not to slash prices during discounting extravaganza Black Friday (24 November) and in the lead-up to Christmas again this year.

If any of the retailer’s prices change in the period from 15 November to 23 December, it has said it will refund the difference for customers.

It emerged in January that Fat Face’s stance against discounting before Christmas delivered 7.9% growth on full-price sales for the 54 days to 24 December 2016, compared with the same period in the previous year.

The retailer said in January that it had a record week of full-price sales in the week to Christmas Eve, and had 22% less inventory going into Sale than 2015.

Fat Face also operates six stores in the US, bringing total store count to 228. These will remain open on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

The firm’s chief executive, Muchiri Wahome, says the move comes after South Africa-based Mr Price Group Ltd approached Deacons with a proposal to purchase the chain of stores.

“The proposed transaction will be subject to various conditions that include requisite approvals from regulatory authorities and the shareholders of Deacons through a shareholders’ meeting to be convened once the sale agreement has been finalized,” said Mr Wahome in a statement yesterday.

Mr Price Group Ltd plans to purchase the Mr Price Home and Mr Price apparel brands which have been operating in Kenya since 2007, effectively ending Deacons’ 10-year franchise deal with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed South African company.

The deal, if approved by regulatory authorities, will see the South African firm take over all 11 Mr Price Home and Mr Price apparel stores in Kenya.

The proposed deal comes amid a 12 per cent drop in earnings for the Johannesburg-based firm, marking its first drop in annual profit since 2001 as South African consumers slowed purchases in a struggling economy.

Deacons suffered a similar fate this year after posting a half-year net loss of Sh180 million citing a tough operating environment. Net loss for the period (June 30) deepened by 242.81 per cent as inflation ate into the spending power of consumers amid rising expenses.

Deacons’ principal business is to operate retail establishments including franchise and department stores selling ladies, men’s and children’s clothing, footwear and accessories among other items in East Africa.

Deacons’ exclusive franchise deal with South Africa’s luxury fashion brand Woolworths ended in 2013 after the multinational took full ownership of its Kenyan subsidiary.

“We had a franchise (agreement) then it moved to a joint venture and Woolworths will now be an independent brand run by them (Woolworths Holdings),” said Mr Wahome at the time.

Dubai-based Lulu group launches India’s first Toys”R”Us store in Bengaluru

The store opened to a huge crowd, with the first customer buying toys worth more than Rs. 1 lakh.

Abu Dhabi-based LuLu Group has launched the global retail toy brand Toys“R”Us in India, with the first store being opened in Bangalore, today.

The first store, touted to be an experiential one, has opened at Phoenix Market City, Bangalore and was met with a huge crowd on its opening day. Tablez India, a division of LuLu group, will run the stores.

In India, the brand has launched the store in two formats – Toys“R”Us and Babies“R”Us, a one-stop destination for baby essentials.

The store offers a full range of toys for both boys and girls in the age group 3 to 11 years and will sell everything from action figures to dolls, books, role play kits, remote-controlled cars, blasters, plush, wheel goods and bikes,

On the occasion of the launch of the store, Adeeb Ahamed, Managing Director, Tablez India, said “We are delighted at setting up the first Toys“R”Us store in Bengaluru. India is among the fastest growing market for toys retail and is growing at a rate of 15 to 20% percent annually. We are planning to expand our stores in other parts of the country. We are aiming to have our second store in Delhi by November this year and by end of this financial year we will have two more stores in Chennai and Mumbai.”

Swedish fashion retailer H&M said third-quarter profits were adversely affected by heavy discounting of the retailer’s summer collection, in a bid to boost sales over the warmer months.

The world’s second-largest clothing retailer said net profits fell 20 percent in the three-month period ending August 2017. Net profit in the third quarter fell from SKr4.8bn a year earlier to SKr3.8bn ($470m). Sales increased 5 percent to SKr59.4bn.

Moreover, in the first nine months of its business year, sales rose just 4 per cent in local currencies. The fast-fashion firm’s new annual target is 10-15 per cent growth, according to Karl-Johan Persson, chief executive of the family-controlled group.

Persson told the Financial Times he was hopeful that the company could reach the target next year. “It is an ambitious goal but it’s realistic. We have to be humble not having reached it this year or last. Also it is a challenging market,” he added.

Helping H&M recover, the affordable European retailer – who’s suffered at the hands of online stores Asos and Zalando, as well as cheaper fashion chains such as Primark – plans to close 90 stores globally in 2017. In return, H&M will focus on its e-commerce.

The group said online sales should increase by at least a quarter in 2017. It added that in some markets, online sales already make up 25-30 percent of its revenues.

H&M plans to invest more in online shopping, including giving customers different and faster delivery options and increasing the product range. It is also investing in its supply chain in an attempt to reduce the amount of inventory it holds and cut the time it takes to get products into shops.

H&M recently opened its first shops in Colombia, Iceland, Kazakhstan and Vietnam. It operates more than 380 stores worldwide.

Italian luxury house of Gucci has recently opened a new children’s clothing store in Dubai at the Dubai Mall. The store features Gucci Creative Director Alessandro Michele’s signature style. The store stocks the complete range of products for kids of the brand.

Fitness brand Sweaty Betty has opened its first European flagship at No. 1 Carnaby Street in London. The prominent 204 sq m store is located at the south entrance to Carnaby Street and is the result of the brand upscaling from its existing store on Beak Street where it has been a resident since 2002.

’19 years and over 50 shops later, I’m so excited to introduce our flagship: No. 1 Carnaby. We spent years dreaming up this concept, I have even handpicked all of the partners to ensure they had a similar value and ethos to the Sweaty Betty brand, to live a balanced life that goes beyond fitness,’ says Tamara Hill-Norton, founder of Sweaty Betty.

The shop is arranged over ground and basement floors allowing the brand to expand and offer its full clothing, accessories and equipment collections, as well as housing a studio space for exclusive wellness events, giving a wider customer experience.

‘Our brief was to design a location filled with fashion, food, fitness and beauty, where you could come with your friends do a workout, grab a smoothie bowl, shop and get pampered,’ says a spokesperson on the Sweaty Betty in-house store design team. ‘Design wise we wanted to encourage our customer to spend time in store, bringing the fun side of our brand alive with unexpected touches including neon and graphic illustrations. My favourite example of this is the lockers in The Studio; from the outside they are really minimal and chic, then once you open the door you’ll find a fun feminist quote hand-illustrated by Lo Parkin.’

The design team wanted to stay true to the brand using its signature grey tones and fluoro pops that it has become known for. The space is really industrial, so to take No.1 Carnaby to the next level, the designers used bright neon installations throughout the space inspired by the lights of Soho. In the shop area itself, the shopping experience has been simplified using blackened steel fixtures and touches of marble and concrete.

As the main concept of the space was to create an area where women would come and want to hang out, homely touches were added, including hanging plants, oak furniture and lots of cushions and rugs.

‘In retail spaces designers now have to think, is this Instagrammable? At Sweaty Betty we love motivational quotes, so you will notice these throughout the store; on a mirror, or a big neon, as they are a huge part of our brand. To ensure these stayed true to our look, we used stencilling for a premium, long-lasting finish,’ says the spokesperson.

‘Our visual merchandising in-store has really elevated our retail space, we love telling a story of the collection with a selection of beautiful imagery, typography and at the moment a vase filled with eucalyptus all displayed on a shelf like a collage. You’ll also see this reflected in the windows; to launch our new Power Leggings we’ve got three girls acting out the store through really fun props.’

The café area has a huge communal table and hanging chairs, to encourage customers to sit and enjoy the space. ‘We’ve tried to think of everything, from organic Bamford products in the showers to specially designed cups in Farm Girl to ensure the ultimate customer experience.’

Sweaty Betty joins other recent additions including Urban Decay, G.H. Bass and Estee Edit who have all chosen Carnaby for their first global or UK flagship store.